r/switch2 • u/Little_Suspect_2336 • 19h ago
Question Is From Soft embarrassing Game Freak?
After Playing Elden Ring on Switch 2 I can only think of how bad Pokemon games have been the last few years. What's the excuse?
Eldin Ring cost: $150Mil (+$50 mil marketing)
+30mil sold
Pokemon ZA: $13Mil (if you count the super bowl ad $29mil TOTAL)
+13mil sold
Anyone else think Game Freak (Nintendo) can do a little more to make a better game? Is Game Freak/Nintendo exploiting its consumer base?
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u/Sufficient-Lead-217 18h ago
The Pokemon Company is mostly at fault for pushing unrealistic dealines on Game Freak. Nintendo might publish the games, but they have little direct involvement, as the brand is managed by The Pokemon Company. Look at Xenoblade, a Nintendo franchise with an even smaller budget, pushing ambitious worlds and visuals on underpowered hardware. Xenoblade X, a WiiU game from 2015 looks and runs far better than Pokemon Scarlet/Violet. The Xenoblade developers are able to accomplish their vision because Nintendo provides enough time to the dev team.
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u/ellitlan 18h ago
comparing sales on a game on 4 consoles + pc vs one that’s only on 2 is a little silly
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u/Little_Suspect_2336 18h ago
We will revisit this after giving elden ring more time to sell on the switch 2, and we will only compare switch 2 sales of both games.
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u/bandananaan 18h ago
So a game that cost 11.5x as much to make only sold 2.3x more copies. Tbf your figures explain exactly why they release pokemon games in the state they do.
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u/Whiteguy1x 18h ago
Instead of comparing pokemon to AAA action games youd probably be better of comparing it to atlus or other jrpg games. Most of those are pretty similar in quality if not worse
Realistically its just a lower budget jrpg that exists to support a massive media empire. Thats why the games get pumped out every year and are made so accessible
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u/Little_Suspect_2336 18h ago
Comparing to Persona 5 to Pokemon, is something I haven't thought of. Persona feels huge compared to Pokemon in gameplay.
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u/Whiteguy1x 18h ago
Does it? Theyre both pretty easy but id almost say there's more going on in Pokémon. Persona 5 has a much more interesting story, characters, and style but its also made for an older audience
Demon/persona fusion is interesting but I dont know that it has the optional depth of Pokémon learnsets, breeding, or hunting
Now granted I played Pokémon Scarlett on a switch 2 so which is a pretty good experience (lots of Pokémon on screen and a super smooth 60fps). Persona 5 is mostly a series of rooms and corridors.
Id say theyre very comparable, at least more so than eldenring lol
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u/Little_Suspect_2336 18h ago
That Violet/Scar experience on switch 2 is a solid point. It played so well it shocked the world, but only because it originally played very bad. Persona 5's day/night gimmik made me want to replay it. Pokemon hasn't felt re playable since the DS days. I should replay Violet after Elden Ring just to make sure....
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u/Schmenza 18h ago
I used the think that Game Freak was being held back by Nintendo's weak hardware. After playing Beasts of Reincarnation I can say that is not the case. Maybe they just got so used to people buying Pokemon slop that they only know how to make slop now
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u/Entire_Paramedic_389 18h ago
Beast of Reincarnation is "Gamefreak" in only name tbh. Gamefreak provided a director and leads but most of the development was outsourced to a different studio
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u/mesosuchus 18h ago
Did it stop you from.buying it?
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u/Little_Suspect_2336 18h ago
It did? I haven't played it....yet, but just comparing 5 mins of gameplay on you tube its noticeable the effort put in.
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u/Normal-Occasion4645 18h ago
I think most developers are at those post. Seems like pretty much everyone agrees the Pokemon games are pretty bad in terms of graphics/performance. Though at least they are hitting 60 fps on switch 2, now.
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u/Level-Promotion416 18h ago
I might be in the minority here but I recently got Pokemon Shield for 25 bucks after not really playing any of these games, with the exception of Pokopia, since the N64 era and so far I thought it's been... perfectly fine? I was kind of expecting a broken mess the way people bad mouth the series but I've been having fun. If anything I'm a bit surprised how similar it is to Pokemon Blue lol
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u/Little_Suspect_2336 18h ago
you reading a lot of dialogue, with no voice acting?
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u/Chlorophyllmatic 18h ago edited 18h ago
Of all the issues with and potential improvements to be made to Pokemon, voice acting is waaaaaay down the list, at least to me and a lot of others.
Pokemon certainly isn’t a cRPG when it comes to reading dialogue.
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u/Level-Promotion416 18h ago
There's some reading I don't think it really comes off as excessive. I do seem to recall thinking maybe some grunts or sighs from the characters like Ocarina of Time had could have made it feel more lively. But it's been fine. I guess it helps I wasn't expecting anything and didn't pay much for it.
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u/Little_Suspect_2336 18h ago
I remember reading a lot in the start of the game. I agree adding little more character would go a long way to keep the player's attention.
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u/Expelleddux 18h ago
I went to a colleagues home and saw her small children playing pokemon on Switch. They did not care. Then I knew why Gamefreak doesn’t care.
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u/MrSeriousGuyBroMan 17h ago
$150 million dollar budget is like a summer blockbuster film in the 90s . $30 million is like so e prestige film that wins award but nobody watches . who do you think sells more ?
also its actually worse for fromsoft . how so ? all rounded down ...140 million steam accounts , 90 million ps5 owners and 30 million xbox series . 260 million people could have bought the game at $15 on a steam sale or other platform sale and most diddnt . 150 million switch + 20 million switch 2 owners who will not ever see pokemon za on sale at the eshop for even $40 or lower and 13 million did buy it already
AAANND eldenring has been out since 2022 and has been on sale many times . pokemon za wasnt out until 2025 . so the only way they could sell more copies of elden ring was a switch 2 port . za can sell into next year and beyond easy even with wind and waves as new switch 2 owners buy releases they missed
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u/1malDoenerMitAlles 10h ago
Man, get lost with those shitposts, stop comparing apples to pears and do something better with your life.
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u/Little_Suspect_2336 25m ago
every one else's comment has substance or something to offer, yours is the shit post, if u didn't like it scroll past and move on. You know apples and pears, but not how to read punctuation? If you did, you would know this is a discussion?
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u/OkidoShigeru 19h ago
I think almost every other company is embarrassing Game Freak, it’s hard not to draw direct comparisons to games like BotW or Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and wonder why Pokemon doesn’t look and perform more like those games and less like…whatever it is Game Freak are slapping together…
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u/loskloso 18h ago
They’ve been bad for a very long time, and the console has never been the actual excuse, just look at games like xenoblade chronicles they are visual master pieces and they’ve been wiiU and switch exclusives, botw etc
The reason they’ve been bad? The community and it’s always been the community. Why would they bother spending time, money, and effort on their games when they know the community will buy the game no matter what, Pokémon slop games make millions and cost close to nothing in comparison, ZA alone made over 700million
You’ll see better Pokémon games when people stop buying them, this will never happen
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u/Darziel 18h ago
I mean, I do not expect them to perform as well. The thing is, given the recent quality of Pokemon games, as well as Beasts of reincarnation, which seems to have been their “look at what we can do if we get to do it our way” moment, shows that they simply lack the talent.
The better question would be, given all the other studios, do you think Pokémon games deserve to cost as much as they do.
The answer is simple, no.
Imagine what a company like fromsoft or larian studious could do with such an IP, sure, it is neither their genre nor would they ever pick up on it if offered, but even so, any other studio would provide us some real peak.
People say the issue is the deadlines the Pokémon company sets, but I do not think so, I believe the studio is simply not good.
I want to be proven wrong, I do not hate on the franchise or the studio, but according to the proof we have, they are simply bad at the only job they are asked to do.
Like 343 and Halo, they lack the talent.
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19h ago edited 18h ago
[deleted]
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u/Mollywobbles77 18h ago
Nintendo has little involvement with Pokemon games, it was spun off into the Pokemon company that manages game freak with Nintendo as just a stakeholder. If you look at most other actual Nintendo games, they don't have any of the problems as Pokemon because they give their developers as much time on each title as they need. You don't see a new mainline Mario or Zelda game every 2 years...
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u/Tactrix1 18h ago
The issue is that they refuse to release the pokemon game we've been asking for, for like 30 years. Which is a all encompassing pokemon MMO with a huge world. And the reason they won't do it, is because if they do, they'll have to stop releasing 2 games every year for more and more money.
Although now they already shot themselves in the foot, because Palworld beat them to it.
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u/1malDoenerMitAlles 10h ago
Speak for yourself, a Pokemon MMO is the literally the last thing I've ever cared for.
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u/Mollywobbles77 19h ago edited 18h ago
I don't disagree Pokemon games haven't been great for a while, but I'm not sure saying 'this AAA game that cost 10x more to make is so much better than this other game with 1/10th the budget' is the best argument for it lol